Visitors listen to an introduction on the nuclear power plant at China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN)'s Ningde Nuclear Power Plant in East China's Fujian Province on August 17, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of CGN

The nuclear-themed tourism project run by Chinese nuclear giant China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) received more than 2,000 online bookings during the two weeks after the service was launched, a trend that exceeded expectations, sources told the Global Times on Thursday. 

"Since the company opened booking services for its nuclear power plants in nine cities across China on August 7, we had recorded total bookings of 2,323 as of Tuesday," an employee of CGN told the Global Times.

"A total of 874 bookings were recorded as of August 10, and it is now more than 2,000. The numbers exceeded our expectations," the employee said, preferring to be anonymous.

Most of the visitors are students making study tours, as young people are more interested in nuclear concepts, the person said. It should be noted that trips to nuclear bases are safe, he said.

Earlier in the month, CGN announced that its nine nuclear bases across China were open to the public upon reservation, as part of a tourism project with local tourism authorities.

The CGN nuclear bases are located across the country, from Northeast China's Liaoning Province to South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Industry insiders said that professionally organized tours to nuclear facilities have significant educational value as such visits can impart sophisticated knowledge of physics, and such tours can also boost rural tourism in surrounding areas.

Experts said that the tours provide a new form of tourism focusing on industrial facilities, and they expect a wave of study tours this summer as the domestic tourism sector blossoms after the pandemic.

Lin Boqiang, an energy expert at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that nuclear tourism could promote knowledge of nuclear power plants and allow more people to become accustomed to such facilities.

"As China builds more nuclear power plants, a rising level of acceptance from the public will be necessary to nuclear power operators," Lin said, noting that people living near nuclear power plants will want to see the sites for themselves. 

Several other companies in China, such as CRRC Corp, have recently opened their industrial facilities, allowing the public to gain a close look at the pinnacle of modern Chinese industrial and manufacturing achievements, including bullet trains and tunnel boring machines.